With the advent of springtime - I always lose myself in transparent glass - it never fails... and save getting rid of that bead hole... let's at least make it pretty. Right?

I have always felt limited by the length of tapered diamond bead reamer... as when cleaning beads - it was always necessary to get the bead release entirely removed from the hole. I KNOW there are jewelry designers out there (*Noel) who sometimes like to use smaller seed beads inside the holes to center the lampwork on the stringing material... only - what happens when you approach both sides of a bead with a tapered reamer? - you end up with an hourglass shaped hole. NOT GOOD... those smaller beads get stuck and since glass doesn't stretch, if pushed firmly inside the bead - it could eventually cause cracking. : (

So - AFTER 2 DECADES - I finally realize that there are other lampworkers that are using either dry silicone carbide or valve grinding compound (from your local automotive parts store) and a mandrel suitable to the hole... and smoothing the release away - without creating any weird altered shape, plus since it doesn't remove any (or very little) glass - the holes stay closer to 1/16" as per the mandrel size!! : ) huh.wow.that.was.easy. Remember - update tonight right on my website. jillsymons.com - smiles - Jill